Singapore - Day 3

Went to Orchard road (Singapore premier shopping district) to look for my good friend, Linda. She is a owner of a shop call LoveLinks, which sells premier Australian jewelleries. Unfortunately, she was not in the shop. I was unaware that she went back to the advertising industry to work, and had other plans for the shop. I ended up roaming around the new shopping mall, Ion Center. It was fascinating - the decorations, technology are an eye-opener! I was hungry and thus decided to go look for local delights in the food court. There are a large number of shops selling anything from dessert to beef noodles to chicken rice. I couldn't really decide what I want to eat. Therefore, I decided to join the longest queue in the food court - The Famous Teochew Fishball Noodle... my rationale was - if there is a long queue, the food must be good! :)

Alfred in front of Ion Food Court

Famous Teochew fishball noodle

Glutinous riceballs and egg pudding

I queued for nearly 30 minutes before I was the third person in the line. Alfred called! He said he was about 15 minutes away from where I am, and I should go watch "Conan The Barbarian" with him. He haven't went to the movies since Olivia was born. I decided that a friend is more important than a bowl of famous Teochew fishball noodle. "Conan The Barbarian" was a DISASTER!... DO NOT WATCH IT! That's enough feedback for that movie...

I couldn't get my mind off the teochew noodle, so Alfred and I decided we should go back to Ion food court and try it. He was eager to try it too since he had never been there as well. It costs $5 for a bowl of dry noodle and a bowl of soup containing 7 huge fishballs. The noodle and fishballs tasted great, and I think they personally do deserve the "Green Book" award for the best fishball noodle for 2009 and 2010. After the fishball noodle, we decided we needed some dessert... so I ordered another bowl of glutinous riceballs with ginger soup and Alfred ordered Almond egg pudding. IT WAS DELICIOUS!

Later in the evening, I finally managed to meet up with Linda and her partner, Francis. It was great to catch up with them after so long, and we decided that we shall have homemade dinner on this coming Saturday. Francis is going to cook for all of us, and he is also going to buy durians! He always love durians, and he is just glad that I am back to share the delight with him. Hannah!... He is expecting you to share that love for durians as well during your next visit around Chinese New Year. According to him, Chinese New Year always yield the best, most fragrant durians! We ended the night with a nice easy sushi meal, edamame, green tea and great dinner conversations.
                                                         

Linda and Francis

Sushi dinner

Singapore - Day 2

Woke up in this morning at 4am sweating through every pores on my body. The weather here is indeed verywarm, even though everyone said it is already cooler than a few days ago. I am glad that I chose to come few days later, otherwise I will probably be in front of the fan for a few days!

This morning I followed my dad to the market to eat "Yong Tau Fu" which is stuff tofu. I did not take any pictures because it was Hari Raya Puasa (Malay New Year), making it a public holiday for everyone. The market was packed, and I being an amateur at ordering, I was rushed to through the queue by an extremely "efficient" and impatient owner/cook/cashier.

Saw my god-daughter, Olivia today. She is a beauty! I especially like the way she pouted when she was unhappy. She will pretend to cry, and pout but she will smile when you picked her up...all she wants to do is being pick up!

My god-daughter, Olivia

Invited Alfred to my family dinner tonight. My youngest aunt and uncle showed up for the dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera. I promised to be more diligent in taking pictures tomorrow.

Singapore - Day 1

Sugar cane juice

BBQ Stingray

Omelete

I am taking a short trip to Singapore from 29th August until 07 September to visit family and friends. Hannah was supposed to come on the trip as well, but she is currently classified under Section 61 by the New Zealand government. As a result, she has to stay back in New Zealand, and we postponed her trip until January 2012 which will be the Chinese New Year.

I took Jetstar to Singapore, which was running a promotion of $600 return trip to Singapore! Of course, there is a catch - NO MEALS provided! However, it posed no problem... I just stock up my bags with cookies and subway sandwiches. The custom officers knows that I am taking Jetstar flight just by looking at the contents of my carry-on :)

Arrived in Singapore at around 8pm with Alfred waiting patiently for me at the exit. First thing we did - EAT!.. That's what Singapore is all about. We had mussels, fried sting-ray, omelet and sugar-cane juice at the East Coast hawker center. It was a VERY warm welcome - the night, outdoor temperature at an average of 26 degree Celsius!

The night end nicely with me sleeping in my mom's room, talking about family affairs.

Aldermen Islands

We managed to squeeze in a one-day dive trip to the Aldermen Islands with the Auckland University Underwater Club (AUUC). We stay in this backpacker's place, the Tairua Beach House. We opted to camp in the van on this trip because not only it is cheaper but also it is just a beautiful place!

The dive is one of the best we ever done in New Zealand as well. Conditions are just perfect!... There is no wind, no wave, the sun is shining, and the visibility is just great! And of course you know it is going to be a perfect day when you have a school of dolphins accompany you out to the dive sites! We dove theMacGregor's Reef and Bay NW of Eyebrow. We also gave a ride to our fellow mate from Boston University, USA, Sarah Healy. While on the way back on Sunday, we swing by the Cathedral Cove to show her the filming sites in Nadia.

Hannah and Jet's new toy

Today, we picked up the van after the WOF inspection and minor repairs. The service person told us that we need to clean up the rust, otherwise it may be harder to pass the WOF inspection next time round. After picking up the van, we decided to go to Nando for dinner since we got a cheap one-day deal last month for a 2-person meal at Nandos.

Along the way to Nando, I finally gave in to Hannah's constant pleading and went over to PB Electronics. She finally bought the cell phone she wanted! A knock-off of other branded high-tech phones from China - a cell phone brand call Pulid and the phone model is OZZO. After some messing around with the Chinese menu, we finally got to change the language to English! :) Although not a well-known brand, this cell phone is full of functions and is well-designed. The functions, keys are all pretty well thought out. Looking at this simple cell phone which cost almost 1/3 the price of other branded phones, it is not hard to imagine that international companies like Hewlett Packard is suffering from all these competitions and making plans to exit the industry!

Jet got his toy today as well! Just before dinner, we went into Animates (the local NZ petsmart) to get Jet the toughest, meanest-looking toy in the whole pet shop! The XXL, XX tough KONG! You can imagine how his eyes lit up when I pull the Kong out from my bag :D

the saga of the chicken fibre

So it all started when Sonny and I went to school today. We were studying in the PGSA lounge, which is a space that is reseved for postgraduate students. It turned out that today was the day of the semester-ly "doctoral induction day". This is a day-long retreat for new PhD students in which they learn how to be good PhD students - mostly things like how to use the library, have a relationship with your supervisor, and make sure your research is good. But the part that I as a postgraduate student am most interested in is the fact that they get a free lunch. Which is served in the PGSA lounge. FREE FOOD.

So I wait patiently for all the doctoral candidates to finish their noshing and leave, and then I approach the PGSA representative and enquire about perhaps grabbing a bite from the leftovers. He says yes and so I fall to it.

5 sandwiches, 2 muffins, most of the remaining fruit, and lots of brownies and caramel slices later, I decide I cannot eat or carry anymore, so I grab a cup of coffee and sit down.

And thats when I feel it.

A piece of chicken from one of the sandwiches (probably the chicken brie and cranberry) is stuck between my teeth. I try several methods of removal to no avail. Fine self, I say, just ignore it.

So I do.

For like three minutes. Fast forward a few hours, and I am on the ferry, knitting, still being irked by this stupid piece of chicken in my teeth. I am in the midst of some impressive glossol/lingual gymnastics in a desperate attempt to remove it, when I look up.

There is a very nice lady watching me knit, and when I look up, she smiles at me for a moment, and then suddenly a look of concern flashes across her face and she breaks eye contact. In a second I realize that my face is screwed up in the most ridiculous expression as a result of my frantic bid at chicken removal.

I think I looked retarded.

For the rest of the trip she refused to make eye contact and Sonny laughs at me. I curse the chicken. When I get home I retire to the bathroom with two mirrors, a flashlight and some tweezers. After some bloodshed, I finally vanquish the chicken piece and return my mouth to its once happy state. I have included a photo below of the piece, in all its beaten embarrassment. You are welcome.

p.s. then I chased Sonny around with it, and wiped it onto his sweatshirt.

p.p.s. Sonny says I don't post on here enough. I say be careful what you wish for

Snow on Waiheke

The arctic blast that came across Auckland this week had brought along low, chilling temperature and with it, the first snow to Auckland since 1939! I was driving home from Matiatia ferry terminal on Monday afternoon and there was snow flurries on the windshield! Gale force winds on Sunday night and Monday morning caused short snow flurry across Waiheke Island! It was pleasant to see some snow flurries after all these years!

Strong winds had brought down trees and powers lines, and from the newspaper reports, workers on the island were bewildered when snow started falling on Monday afternoon! Residents and workers dashed out to watch flakes of snow fall, although the flurries did not settle and quickly turned into rain.

But, hey... it's beginning to feel like "Christmas" :P

Dog crack

Parmesan cheese = dog crack.

Kaly and Jet WILL do anything for some parmesan cheese... literally anything, including going for Hannah's hand which holds the cheese :D

Sad Jet

Sometime ago I posted on how fast Jet can destroy his toy Kong. This morning saw the end of his last surviving Kong. As a result there are NO more toys in the house for him to chew on! Without anything in his mouth, Jet is like a lost soul... he wanders around the house searching for a purpose in life, searching for something to destroy. After numerous "No Jet!"... what you get is a very sad and lost puppy :P

Free diving

Last monday, Hannah and I went for our first free diving training with the Auckland Freediving club. We were meant to do our intro to freediving class, but Hannah wasn't feeling too well. So in the end, I went into the pool with two other guys who were new to free diving as well. We became interested with freediving because of all the hype of people are talking about how wonderful it is to dive without bulky equipment, the excitement of spear-fishing etc. However, I think we are mainly interested to be able to safely and effective freedive in near shore waters, and not being have to lug all those scuba equipment around. Freediving is not going to replace scuba diving for us!

Training at the club is segmented into static and dynamic training. During the intro session, we were taught about basics of holding breath, rescue etc. There are more than freediving than just holding your breath and go under water... there are inhale dive, exhale dive, packing etc... these words just make me sound like a professional freediver! :P